Growing Pains

About two months ago (give or take... sometimes my weeks and months run together and I lose track of time) Howard was driving me absolutely crazy.  Everything we asked him to do, he refused and ran away laughing.  It felt like he was getting in trouble all day every day.  I felt like all I was doing was disciplining him and reiterating rules that he already and knew and enforcing boundaries that he should have already known.

Then, one day he was my sweet little boy again.  It was like he literally grew out of it overnight, and it was no longer testing every boundary, and he was such a joy again.

It was then that I developed a new appreciation for the term "growing pains."  During those weeks of testing every limit I set for him, Howard was indeed growing and developing... and it was a pain everyday -- he was a pain everyday.  But I wanted to try to remember that situation because there was an end result to the challenging behaviors -- he was growing through them.  I wanted to remember the growing piece the next time one of my children went through a period of growth... and thus, a period of becoming a pain.

Well, after a months hiatus and enjoying my children, now Tracey is developing some behaviors that are driving me crazy.  I have taken to saying at the end of the day, "Tracey was especially four today."  In this situation, I need to remember that in every pain that is occurring right now... she is growing through each and every one.  These behaviors will not last forever and when we come through this season of pains, she will have grown.